2014 general election

Following on from the LDP landslide win at the 2012 general election, in which the party won 12 of the 13 electorates in Shikoku plus two of the six seats from the PR list,^[4] the LDP maintained their dominant position in the region by retaining all 10 of their electorates^[5] (two electorates were abolished to address voter malapportionment) and gaining a seat on the PR list from the dissolved Japan Restoration Party (JRP).

The JRP, which won 2 seats with 21.3% of the vote at the 2012 general election,^[4] had split in May 2014, with former members subsequently forming the Japan Innovation Party and Party for Future Generations. Of the two JRP members previously elected from the Shikoku PR list, Fumiki Sakurauchi [ja] joined the Party for Future Generations and contested the PR block in 2014, while Arata Nishioka [ja] contested the Ehime 2nd district [ja] as an independent; both candidates lost.

Former Ehime Prefectural Assembly [ja] member Hiroyuki Yokoyama [ja]^[6] the Japan Innovation Party's unsuccessful candidate in Ehime 2nd district, gained a seat for the new party, while the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and Komeito representatives were able to retain their seats.^[5]

2012 general election

Prior to the election, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) held three of the six PR block seats as well as 5 of the 13 small electorates that make up the block. The opposition LDP held 2 of the PR seats and the 8 remaining electorates, while their traditional junior coalition partner Komeito held the final PR seat.

The 2012 general election delivered a landslide victory to the LDP, with 294 of the 480 seats won at the national level. The election decimated the DPJ from a pre-election position of 230 to just 57 seats.^[9] In the Shikoku PR block, the DPJ lost 2 of their seats as their vote was reduced to 16.0%, down from 43.2% in the 2009 election. Junya Ogawa lost his seat in Kagawa 1st district but was the DPJ candidate to suffer the narrowest defeat, so he was able to retain a seta in the house. The newly-formed Japan Restoration Party gained the two seats lost by the DPJ.^[10] In the 13 single-member electorates, the LDP gained 4 seats, with Yuichiro Tamaki being the only DPJ member to retain his seat in the Kagawa 2nd district.^[11]

2009 general election